Mikel Arteta began his press conference on Friday with a positive update on defender Gabriel Magalhaes.
The centre-back had come off injured against Liverpool, but initial reports had suggested it was nothing too serious. Arteta has now confirmed the good news, even adding that the player could be back against Newcastle United on Saturday.
“Yes (it’s good news on Gabriel),” Arteta said. “We have a training session today. If he can complete that he will be available, he hasn’t had any training sessions yet, but if he’s able to do that he will be available in the squad.”
There wasn’t such good news on Riccardo Calafiori and Martin Odegaard, with Arteta confirming “Riccy and Martin are out definitely”.
Though that was no real surprise, with Odegaard only just returning to running on grass and Calafiori set to be out for a few weeks.
As for Ben White, Arteta admitted the right-back’s fitness status is still up in the air.
“With Ben we don’t know yet,” Arteta said. “He hasn’t trained yet, he could not train, he could not get involved. So let’s wait and see if he’s available.”
White has been absent since the Liverpool game last weekend, missing out on Arsenal’s match against Preston North End through injury.
There haven’t been any leaks on exactly the problem White is dealing with, but his absence from training has been concerning.
With any luck, he’s in a similar situation to Gabriel and a strong training session on Friday will have him back in contention for starts.
